Traffic or safety cones, are routinely used to direct motorists and pedestrians away from obstacles or dangerous area. These cones are usually brightly colored, hollow conical shaped devices made of a synthetic, rubber or other plastic (See for example U.S. Pat. No. 2,333,273 to Scanlon et al.). Traffic and safety cones are meant to minimize damage to persons or vehicles which may collide with the cones. However, safety cones are still of significant danger to the public. One reason is that, although the traffic cones are made out of a synthetic, rubber or other plastic, they are still relatively rigid and tend to fall over easily when the cones are subject to natural or traffic wind, perturbations by passing traffic or violence. Furthermore, safety cones that are, for instance, run over or hit by a vehicle, could become dangerous objects or obstacles by being airborne or simply laying on the road, in particular to following traffic or surrounding people.
A variety of different self-righting traffic cones have been proposed. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,386,409 to Dietz Company describes to shape the base of the cone in such a manner that the cone is nestable or stackable self-righting in the manner of a self-righting top. The objective of U.S. Pat. No. 3,386,409 is to provide a nestable cone which, when it has been toppled over, will not roll away but will right itself and stand erect near to the position in which it was originally placed. This was accomplished by a hollow molded plastic traffic cone that has a base portion weighted to give a low center of gravity to the cone. The annular bottom of the base is gradually curved outward and upward to provide rockers so the cone is self-righting and is divided into six angularly spaced triangular legs to prevent rolling when the cone is knocked over.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,888,016 to Eui Sig Ahn et al. describes a traffic collar cone that has a delineator having a reflection sheet attached on its upper part. A plug is placed under the sheet having an air inlet and outlet extending upwardly and downwardly there-through. A conical body member is provided, having in its upper end wall an insertion hole in which the plug is mounted. A support panel is provided at the bottom of the body and cone collars are attached on the outer surface of the body member, with vertical spacing between them. The traffic collar cone is made of flexible material and designed to recover its original shape after being impacted, so that injury to collar cone is eliminated or minimized.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,993,105 to Chan describes a safety marker that includes a hollow frusto-conical body and a base having a bowl-shaped main portion and a resiliently flexible skirt for yieldably stabilizing the marker against tipping relative to a supportive surface.
So far the solutions have focused on self-righting of the traffic cone. However, these solutions are still not satisfactory from a safety standpoint since they still are either too rigid or can still relatively easy fall over. Accordingly, there is a need to develop a better traffic cone or marker device that further improves road and traffic safety.